Imperialisms, Revolutions, and Resolutions in the Caribbean Amazon - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 88

ThefirstEuropean“discovery”oftheregionwasbyVicentePinzón,whohadtraveled
with Columbus as the captain of the Niña and in 1499 landed in what is now Pernam-
buco, in the Brazilian Northeast, a few months before Brazil was officially “discovered”
in 1500 by Pedro Alvares Cabral. Pinzón turned north, sailed for about fifty leagues to
the Amazon estuary, and then continued on up the coast. The Oyapoque River was said
to have been discovered by him and was later baptized with his name, as was another
huge watercourse, the Araguarí, right below Cabo Norte, a river that would become, as
von Humboldt described it “celebrated in the annals of diplomatic disputes.” 7 This con-
fusion over river names was later to become a flashpoint in Franco-Brazilian territorial
battles. TheproblemwasthatthirtyriversdraintotheAtlantic between theAmazonand
the Oyapoque, and many were baptized as the Vicente Pinzón.
MilitaryconquestoftheWildCoastwasverydifficultforreasonsofgeography,guer-
rilla warfare, and disease. 8 Successful engagement required alliances with native polit-
ies who mediated trade, travel, subsistence, and security. Historical ethnographer Neil
Whitehead has shown in detail the complexity of the indigenous interactions and how
European involvement (and trade goods) enhanced both trading polities and lineage so-
cieties by reinforcing the power of their elites, increasing both competition and cooper-
ation among them, and inflaming regional indigenous politics. 9 In addition, the Carib-
bean Amazon was at a complex intersection of a “Great Game” between France, Eng-
land, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, native Amazonian nations, and the quilombo set-
tlements and polities over the region. Runaways, castaways, mutineers, pirates, and pri-
vateers also plied the wild coast with their own economies, politics, and ambitions. 10
It was, in spite of its seeming remoteness, very cosmopolitan, a strangely transnation-
al space. Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe (1719) takes place on an island off
the Wild Coast and provides a sense of just how international the region was: Crusoe,
a British planter, also a Brazilian landowner and slaveholder, is shipwrecked. His tale
involves outwitting native groups (cannibal Caribs), international powers (Spain, Por-
tugal),mutineers,andpirates;intheendBritishtechnicalskillandmoralvirtuenaturally
triumph over European and local barbarianisms.